en France, rain, rain and more rain and possible strikes!

The boat trip across the channel on Friday from Dover to Calais was in deep mist and apart from some sunny spells on the first couple of days, it has rained and rained every day!  We picked up our lease car, a brand new Peugeot 2008 at the ferry terminal and Tony has done a great job of driving on the other side of the road.  We have a third person in our car, the very unflappable voice of the Sat Nav, who has proved invaluable as we have negotiated the back roads from Calais to Orgeval and occasionally, very patiently, tells us to "if at all possible do a u-turn"!  The main reason for being in Paris now was to go to the Tennis at Roland Garros. Sat Nav very capably guided us to Neully and we miraculously found a park in very congested Paris streets on Monday.  Once there we joined the crowds in raincoats and sporting umbrellas to enter the stadium only to decide after an hour inside that it was far too wet for tennis and we left to find our car again!  We took the train into Paris yesterday and visited our old street, rue Legendre in the 17th, where we spent a year enjoying the diplomatic life 38 years ago!  Some things have changed but the boulangerie and our apartment building is still the same.  Paris is full of tourists, especially at the Musee d'Orsay where a couple of hundred were queued up outside waiting to go in. The River Seine was very high and running very fast after all the rain with river boats cast adrift from their walkways. 

The highlight has been a few days spent with friends Chez Smati in a century old house surrounded by leafy hedges!  France is in uproar at the moment with the President wanting to change industrial laws re working hours and making it easier to dismiss people (shades of Oz, though the official work week here is only 35 hours).  Youth unemployment is very high at 10%.  Tomorrow is a National strike day with no trains etc.  The fuel refineries are closed down, ports barricaded and Air France pilots are going on strike too.  Hopefully, they all agree to agree in the next few days or we may be stuck once the petrol runs out!